Ontario woman living in car after hurricane

Mother trying to rescue daughter left homeless in remote part of Dominica

A woman from Ontario is stranded in a remote part of Dominica living inside a car with only two days worth of food for her children and husband after hurricane Maria destroyed everything they had.

Back in Canada, Sara Ouellette Subero’s mother had been waiting days to hear about her daughter’s fate after hurricane Maria cut off all communication to the island.

Lynn Cockburn-Ouellette, in Sturgeon Falls, Ont., learned Thursday night that the storm destroyed Subero’s resort and left the family and their guests without shelter or enough food.

Almost every structure on the resort was torn to pieces after the Category 5 storm wrought havoc across the Caribbean island of Dominica Monday night, killing at least 15 people.

The extensive destruction to homes and power has stranded many residents. With winds above 255 km/h, the storm silenced all communication and ripped trees from their roots, rendering the island brown and bare.

“It’s absolutely terrible, seeing what’s happening; it’s like a warzone,” Cockburn-Ouellette said on Friday.

“We have all gotten into action, trying to figure out a way of getting them back, to make sure they are safe.”

Subero and her family were left alone in their car, one of the only dry places left on the resort, after their seven guests decided to walk 27 kilometres to the capital city despite the mud, flooding and debris strewn across the island.

With a baby and a 5-year-old daughter, the Suberos chose not to make the journey, as they knew the terrain was dangerous and difficult.

Subero, 30, and her husband Stephan Ricardo Subero, 33, moved from Sturgeon Falls, northwest of Algonquin Provincial Park, to Dominica in 2014. Their small resort offered a simple, natural environment to travellers passing through the island.

The guests told her mother on Thursday night that the journey to the capital was harsh because of the muddy hills and debris. Before their boat to Barbados arrived at the capital city in Dominica Friday morning, the seven of them slept on a tarp on the street.

They could hear the sound of gunshots and shouts from looters all night, she said.

“They described it as utter chaos,” Cockburn-Ouellette said.

The guests sent a photo of a quickly written note from Subero to her mother on Thursday night, which said the family is well but the resort is not habitable. Subero writes that they will wait for communication while they can, and, if no help arrives, they will try to find shelter elsewhere.

Subero’s mother said she phoned Global Affairs Canada, hoping to receive some support to rescue her family, but the call left her even more confused.

“After I told them everything, I expected them to say something about what the procedure is, or anything of help,” she said. “But they simply told me they have no information right now.”

The federal government has stated that the devastation caused by hurricane Maria is hampering efforts to evacuate more than 150 Canadian students who also asked Ottawa for help.

Alghabra said the Canadian government is in constant contact with university officials, who are arranging to transfer the students by boat to St. Lucia, where consular officials are waiting to help them.

Cockburn-Ouellette said a representative with Global Affairs Canada told her about the evacuation involving the students and suggested that, if her daughter can get to the capital, then she, too, could join.

Cockburn-Ouellette reiterated to the representative that her daughter has two small children, that the roads are impassable and that they can’t even communicate with her daughter to let her know of the plan.

“I asked her, ‘why would you even offer that?’ ” she said.

Cockburn-Ouellette said, on Friday, that she is working with locals in the area, and friends and families of the guests, to arrange rescue efforts.